I am writing this from Alabama. Today is a good day (I'll explain more later), but it has a tinge of sadness too. Today was my mother's birthday. She died nine months ago of pancreatic cancer, in the most bizarre of circumstances. The short version--she was really sick, and in the hospital for a week. I had flown to Florida to be with her. She was told that she had cancer, but that nothing was going to happen anytime soon, and she was mentally okay with it. I left to fly back home, with the intentions of being back in a few weeks. I landed in Houston, only to get an emergency call from my brother to get back on a plane. I was back in the hospital in Florida 24 hours after I had left it, and my mother died one hour later. I had the privilege to be with her the last hour of her life. The next day my father and brother and I had to evacuate (remember the three hurricanes that hit Florida?), and we lived in a daze in a hotel somewhere for 2 weeks....but that's another story.
Anyway....if your mother is alive, tell her you love her. And happy birthday Mom......
